Celestron began importing numerous models of refractors in 1984. Many were imported from Vixen in Japan, and the quality was very good. In later years Celestron's refractors have varied from passable (Cometron and more recent Firstscope models) to excellent.
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The equatorial mounts offered with the early refractors was the same heavy duty tripod mounted "Polaris" GEM used on the C6 reflectors. It was slightly smaller, but similar to the SPC mount, with excellent fit and finish and as options a Polaris finder and electronic drive. The initial models were the C60, with a 60mm f/15 optical tube and the C80 with 80mm f/11.4 optics. Both telescopes were supplied with a 6x30 finder, 1 ¼" focuser and eyepieces. A 4" refractor with the same accessories, called the C100, was a 102mm f/12.7 optical tube mounted on a simple but sturdy alt-az mount. | |
| C80 w/ Polaris Mount | ||
| Building on the success of other high quality refractors, a line of telescopes with a flourite element in the lens was introduced that same year. These were often sold as optical tubes only, with the same accessories as the non-flourite models. They included the C70F, a 70mm f/8 refractor, and the C80F, an 80mm f/8 refractor. | ||
| Note: Celestron also handled a Cometron series of refractor telescopes and accessories starting in 1984. These were adequate, but lower quality imports similar to what was being offered by B&L/Bushnell, Jason and others at the time. Both 60mm and 80mm versions were supplied with a small generic alt-az or German equatorial mounts. Although the 80mm model was offered for only a short time, the 60mm model was on the market for several years. They are easy to differentiate from the other models since they have a bold "Cometron" label. | ||
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Later in 1984 the Firstscope 80 became available. The 80mm f/11.4 tube from the C80 was monted on on a heavy duty alt-az mount with slow motion controls. With 6x30 finder, 1 ¼" focuser and 26mm eyepiece. | |
| Firstcope 80 | ||
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To end the year Celestron announced its now famous Super Polaris Mount on a wide variety of their telescopes. (See the Schmidt-Cassegrain section for more on the SPM.) The refractor models included the SP-C80, which was the new version of the C80 f/11.4 refractor, the SP-C80F 80mm f/8 flourite refractor. Although rare, they also produced the SP-C90 with 90mm f/10 optical tube and the SP-C90F with a 90mm f/8 flourite objective lens. At the large end of this group was the SP-C102 with a 102mm f/10 optical tube and the SP-C102F, the well respected 102mm f/9 flourite doublet. All of these models included a 6x30 finder and 1 ¼" accessories. In 1993 these telescopes received an updated "Great Polaris" mount from Japan. Functionally these were the same telescopes as the SPC's above but now they were called the GPC's. They included the GPC-80, GPC-80F, GPC-102 and the GPC-102F. | |
| SPC 102 | ||
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In 1995 Celestron introduced its "Firstscope" series in the 60mm telescope. The Firstscope 60 was the basic f/11.7 alt-az telescope with a 5x24 finder and .965" accessories. The Firstscope 60 Deluxe replaced the .965"" accessories with a hybrid diagonal and two 1 ¼" eyepieces. The Firstscope 60EQ was the basic 60mm optical tube and .965"" accessories on a light equatorial mount. The Premium 80, replaced the old Firstscope 80 this same year, and just to make things confusing, a Firstscope 80EQ was now added with the 80mm f/11.4 optical tube on an equatorial mount. Following up on this, the Firstscope 80WA was offered with an 80mm f/5 optical tube on an equatorial mount. | |
| Firstcope 80EQ | ||